President Obama was spot on when he asked the world not to grant terrorists the legitimacy they sought for, by labelling them as Islamic. He was addressing the summit on Countering Violent Extremism, being held in White House, Feb 18. He acknowledged the fact the Al-Qaeda, Daesh and other religious extremist groups selectively draw justification for their acts from ‘Islamic texts’. This is how they recruit young, uninformed and vulnerable minds to run their campaign of violent hatred against anyone disagreeing with them.
Here comes the need for a Counter-Narrative to defeat the religious extremists on their own pitch. Everyone talks about confronting the ideologies that are radicalising the Muslim youth across the globe, no matter they are in East or West, but no one comes up with a counter-account to prove them wrong. Instead we see influential politico-religious personalities and parties buying into extremists’ propaganda and declare them as ‘martyrs’ fighting for a just cause. You will find some of them on forefront to devise conspiracy theories to link extremists as proxies of the West, but when it comes to condemn their acts of terror in clear terms, they become apologetic for terrorists with loads of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.
It’s a well-known fact that we can’t win the war on religious extremists by military might alone, we need to confront and defeat them on ideological grounds. Yes, the regional and world powers are getting united to militarily confront the wide-spread cancer of Daesh, but who will counter them with ‘Islamic texts’ to prove them wrong. If defeated today, they may emerge tomorrow with a new identity but with same agenda.
Needless to say it shall be the top priority job for governments, religious scholars, historians, sociologists, educationists and jurists to nullify the terrorists’ narrative with counter-texts and historical references. Where is the OIC? Why can’t it coordinate the compilation of a counter-narrative? Once done, that shall be the only narrative to be taught in schools and seminaries across the globe. But I know nothing is going to happen and we will continue to be engulfed in this vicious cycle of hatred and bloodshed. And that’s what these extremists are looking for to achieve.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
